"I found it profound. The film includes this quote: “We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We’re kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” Which is amazing itself. I mean that’s what writing and reading is all about and what art is all about. It kind of speaks to his wisdom and generosity, but the whole film is a portrait of this guy, this man, Roger Ebert, and the wisdom he’s been able to achieve. It has this amazing sensibility that’s kind of marked out by that one quote, which is that some parts of our life are given, whether it’s your talents, your preferences, your proclivities, maybe even your ideological proclivities, your body, your parents, your upbringing, your health, and you can’t do anything about that other than make sense of it and accept it. And then some parts of our lives are chosen. In his case, whether to drink or whether not to drink. How to practice his citizenship and his craft. How to treat other people. Life Itself is kind of about negotiating those two stark realities of human existence. I’ve never seen that expressed so effectively in a piece of art."

"A perfect biographical documentary, possibly one of the classics, this is a lovingly and brutally honest portrait of a famous film critic in the final days of his life. I sincerely can't think of any way that it could have been better."

"Steve James' wonderful, heartbreaking "Life Itself" to give us the whole man in all his personas, some graceful, some not-so-nice... That's what makes this a great documentary rather than a very good one: James comes to his subject with respect and affection, but he understands that a documentarian's job is to assemble the paints and then allow the portrait to paint itself."

"If Sundance gave an award for the most emotionally debilitating film of the festival, then Life Itself, a documentary from Hoop Dreams director Steve James about the life of Roger Ebert, would win it anew every screening... it’s the movie that’s moved and inspired me the most."

“Life Itself allows us to watch Ebert go into that final shared darkness we all have to face with a light – and not a thumb – held high to guide us as one his final gift: A graceful, grateful model of how, if we’re as smart as we are lucky, we might one day die."

"As the full, unvarnished portrait of the people’s critic, Life Itself is surprising, touching, and unforgettable. It vaults to the rarefied air of the very best documentaries about the history of cinema; if you care deeply about the seventh art and the life’s work of Roger Ebert, you will love this film."

"No [Sundance] film seemed to touch as many attendees, however, as “Life Itself,” Steve James’s intimate look back at the career of the late film critic Roger Ebert. James previously directed the seminal Sundance documentary “Hoop Dreams,” and with a candid Ebert as his subject this time around, he creates a film that is at once hard to watch and deeply captivating."

"Does justice to the disparate seasons of a complicated man’s life, capturing Ebert’s evolution from boy dreamer to national treasure with compassion, empathy and a welcome lack of sentimentality. James has created a roaring, defiant celebration of life that doubles as a valentine to the film and newspaper world in which Ebert found his truest homes."

"A truly excellent piece of work... the tangible facts of Life Itself may inspire tears, but the way in which it reminds us of Ebert’s influence is a joyful thing to consider, something worth celebrating all by itself."

"When you have the likes of Martin Scorsese choking up on screen, it's clear that we're seeing something remarkable captured. As a doc, the arc of the story flows well, the interviews compelling and well shot, the portrait of the man complex and engaging. It's another remarkable film from a truly remarkable filmmaker."

"Life Itself" is not wide-eyed deification, but a clear-minded portrait of Ebert that is both funny and unflinching. It’s a great film that champions Ebert’s vision of film and writing as a means to reach other people, moreso than the simple data of his life-long tenure as a film critic. It’s a film worth seeing.